Where Do Baby Dragons Come From?
by Mysterious Sunshine
Summary: It's the age-old question that every parent prays won't come but simultaneously knows they will have to face sooner or later. When young Brynhilde Haddock spends the day with her parents waiting for the return of the mating dragons, she has that all-to important question on her mind. How will Hiccup and Astrid handle their little girl's curiosity?


Brynhilde haddock awoke early on the day after Snoggletog. It was so early she had even beaten Toothless. She scampered quietly into her parents room. They were sound asleep in their bed, her mommy's blonde head tucked under her daddy's chin. The three-year-old looked around at the room, barely containing her excitement. She saw Toothless curled up on his stone bed in the corner, and she walked over to him. Hearing her footsteps, he blinked blearily at her. She put her finger to her lips and gave a conspiratorial smile. Toothless's eyes lit up with mischief and the two of them crept over to the unsuspecting parents.

Bryn climbed onto the foot of the bed and gestured for Toothless to get in position. He did so with a gummy grin, and Bryn started jumping vigorously. Both Hiccup and Astrid, realizing that sleeping in a moving bed was not very comfortable, began to stir. Astrid was the first to open her eyes and lift her head. Before she could register anything, a big, black creature roared in her face. She screamed in surprised fear, her hands, which had turned into fists by that point, waving reflexively and hitting Hiccup in the stomach. Hiccup gave a painful yell before toppling off the bed and being covered in dragon slobber.

"Toothless, what in Thor's name are you doing?" ASTRID yelled as she sat up and got the full picture of the scene before her.

"Please, inquiring minds would like to know," Hiccup said, sitting up and trying to wipe the drool from his face. Astrid gave him a hand up back into the bed as Toothless gave his trademark dragon chuckle. Before anyone could say anything else, a giggle came from underneath the bed. During the previous chaos, Bryn had snuck off of the bed and rolled under it. Now she emerged looking like the Terror who caught the salmon.

"Well, well, little lady," Hiccup said. "Did you do this?" She shook her head, but her impish grin told a different story. Astrid sprung from the bed, scooped the giggling girl in her arms and dumped her on hiccups lap.

"Eww, dragon slobber," Bryn laughed as she scrambled away from a laughing hiccup who was trying to give her a kiss.

"C'mon Bryn, no kiss for your loving Daddy?" he said with a mock hurt voice. Bryn's eyes softened, and she leaned in for a second before jerking back with a laugh.

"Nope!" Astrid snickered and brought the young girl into her arms.

"What about you, Mi'lady? A kiss for your daring dragon boy?" he asked hopefully, leaning in.

"No way, Hiccup!" she said sternly.

"Rejected twice by my own family! How will I go on?" he cried dramatically. "Will no one kiss me?" Toothless leaned over and covered hiccup with another coat of dragon saliva and Astrid and Bryn went wild with laughter.

"Not what I meant," Hiccup grumbled playfully.

"Stormfly's coming today," Bryn announced after the scene had calmed.

"Yes, that's right," Astrid said hopping out of bed with Bryn in her arms. Hiccup followed.

Once the little family was all cleaned up and fed, Hiccup decided it would be a good time to go on a family flight. The dragons who left to have their babies would be returning in a few hours and they could be the first to see them. While Toothless wasn't too thrilled about having to hold back his flying exuberance, he was happy to be spending time with his human and his human's family. And honestly, the way Bryn was turning out, he didn't have to hold back much. She was a daredevil in the sky, just like two certain people he knew.

Before they went to meet the dragons, they did a fly around of the island to check on the residents of berk. Bryn loved going on those trips with her Daddy; she thought it was so cool seeing him in action as the chief. Nothing out of the ordinary was going on. The village was still sleepily moving around. They only stopped once to help Sven corral a troublesome lamb back into its pen.

"Daddy! Let me try!" Bryn cried excitedly. Since it was a tiny little lamb, Hiccup lifted Bryn off of Toothless and set her on the ground.

"Ok little lady. Show us what you got," Hiccup grinned. Bryn stood there for a moment, not quite sure what she should do. Then, her eyes lit up and she got on all fours. She began bahing at the little lamb, who stood in confusion at the creature making noises at it. Then it trotted over and began nuzzling Bryn. Giggling madly, Bryn began crawling towards the pen, the lamb following happily behind.

"And that right there proves that she's your daughter," Astrid laughed. Hiccup just grinned in pride as Sven closed the gate with the lamb and Bryn securely inside. They were now rolling around in the grass, and Bryn Looked up to see toothless landing next to her.

"Very well done, Little Lady." Hiccup called, scooping the girl up in his arms. "Keep this up and you'll be the new chief." Bryn just laughed and snuggled into her Dad's chest.

When noon arrived, the Haddock family was sitting cheerfully on one of the tallest and widest sea stacks, waiting for Stormfly to return. Hiccup and Astrid were huddled together, watching Bryn race around Toothless with her arms extended out to each side.

"Whooo! I'm a dragon, Toothless!" she cried in delight. Toothless roared in approval, fluttering is wings.

"Careful, Bryn," Astrid called as the young girl had gotten a little too close for comfort to the edge. "You don't want to fall."

"If I was a dragon, I could fly, and I wouldn't fall at all," Bryn mused as she moved away from the edge. Astrid gave Hiccup a pointed look.

"Ok, ok. My genes are strong in her," he chuckled.

"Daddy, can I draw pictures?" Bryn asked a few moments later. She was starting to get bored waiting for the dragons. Hiccup reached into the saddle bag to grab some charcoal pencils and a spare note book. He handed them to Bryn and she went to sit near the edge again. Astrid was about to give another warning, but Toothless positioned himself within grabbing distance just in case something happened.

It was silent for another few moments as Toothless settled in for a nap, Bryn scratched away at her note book, and Astrid sat braiding Hiccup's hair as he flipped through the dragon stats cards that Fishlegs had made him for his 24th birthday.

"Mommy, Daddy, look!" Bryn's excited voice came suddenly. They both looked up and out into the distance where they could see a cloud of small dots making its way towards Berk.

"They're here," Astrid called excitedly, standing up and peering through her cupped hands to see if she could spot Stormfly. Toothless woke quickly and called a loud greeting to the incoming dragons. The group could hear faint roars echoing back.

"Babies!" Bryn yelled, bouncing up and down in exuberance. "I get to see all the babies!" Her parents smiled down at her.

About 15 minutes later the flock of dragons hit land. Their joyous screeches drew all the Berk residents towards the shore to greet their long-awaited friends. Stormfly landed on the sea stack where the Haddocks were smiling in anticipation, her babies landing gracelessly behind her.

"Oh Stormfly, I'm so glad to see you!" Astrid said, throwing her arms around the Nadder's neck. Stormfly nuzzled her and squawked happily.

"Look at the babies!" Bryn laughed, reaching down to run her fingers across the scales of a bright green Nadder baby. It gave a yelp and hopped away from the giggling girl. Happily, Bryn chased after it.

"Good to see you, girl," Hiccup said to Stormfly with a pat. Toothless was next, and he playfully nudged her and growled excitedly at the little hatchlings that were now surrounding him in curiosity.

"Where do baby dragons come from?" Bryn asked. She had finally managed to catch the little green Nadder and it sat contentedly in her arms.

"They come from eggs," Hiccup said, reaching down to dislodge a baby that had taken great interest in his metal leg.

"Yeah, but where do the eggs come from?"

Hiccup froze in horror. He was aware that this topic would come up, and sooner rather than later with recent events, but he had figured Astrid would take care of it while he was off doing chiefly duties. He looked over to Astrid, who was at a loss for words herself.

"Well, a Mommy dragon has eggs inside of her and when she gets together with a daddy dragon, they put babies inside the eggs," Astrid said slowly, giving Hiccup a look that plainly conveyed that he better be involved in this conversation too or she would ax him to Valhalla and back.

"How do they do that? What makes the baby?" Bryn's forehead was creased in concentration as she tried to make the pieces fit into something she could understand. Hiccup was cursing his genes for making him have to stumble through this awkward situation, before he was prepared to, and Astrid was most likely thinking along the same lines if her glare was anything to go by. For a few moments, the couple stood, dumbfounded. Stormfly alternated between minding her young and giving Astrid little smirks. Toothless had flopped on the ground and was cuddling some of Stormfly's more docile hatchlings as he slowly drifted back to sleep. Bryn just watched it all with great expectation. Then, Hiccup got an idea.

"You know how you and Grandma make cakes?"

"Yes," Bryn said, clearly not understanding where her father was going with this.

"To bake a cake, you have to have ingredients and do certain things to those ingredients to make a proper cake. You have to have flour, sugar, eggs, and you have to mix and beat and knead to get it to turn out right."

"Yep, Grandma always says that to get the best cake, you have to follow a recipe," Bryn said proudly.

"The same goes for a baby dragon. Each dragon has different ingredients and they have to put them together to make a baby."

Astrid looked impressed at Hiccup's ability to avoid a very awkward situation. She gave him a smile, not-so-secretly glad that they could avoid any deeper explanations for the time being. Bryn looked satisfied with that answer for now, but both Hiccup and Astrid realized that it wouldn't last for long. They had to get out of dodge.

"Why don't we get some lunch, I'm starving. And I'm sure Stormfly would like to show her babies around Berk," Astrid suggested. Bryn nodded happily and held her arms up for Hiccup Who scooped her into his arms as Astrid collected the notebook and pencils.

"Nap time's over, Bud," Hiccup said, nudging the dragon awake. Toothless shot a small, harmless blast at him, singeing the tail of his shirt. "Great. What a class act," he muttered. The group took off from the sea stack and flew into town with little fan fair.

Later that night when Bryn had been read a story and put to bed, Hiccup and Astrid lay in their bed cuddling.

"So, I noticed you didn't tell her," Hiccup smirked, poking Astrid gently in the ribs. She elbowed him, a little less gently.

"You didn't tell her either," she threw back.

"I technically did.

"No, you didn't. You just came up with a creative solution to tell her without telling her, and it had nothing to do with..."

"Ok, Ok, fine!" Hiccup said. "But honestly Astrid, I didn't want to give her more questions to ask, and You're the one that's pregnant."

"And whose fault is that?"

"We've been over this. Two Vikings in the position we were in equals baby. So, you cannot blame this on me!" Hiccup huffed indignantly before his trademark crooked smile flashed across his face "Though if you're implying that I was too much to resist, then I'll take the blame." Astrid laughed and socked him in the arm that was wrapped around her.

"Dork." Then she leaned over to kiss him. He rolled his body so that she was fully encircled in his arms, their lips locking as he deepened the kiss. When they broke apart, they lay in the quiet moment, basking in the love they had for each other, they're curious little trouble maker, and the new little bundle of surprises that was on the way. Finally Hiccup broke the silence.

"I say we wait until the baby's born and we tell her that it hatched."

"Deal." Astrid laughed.


End file.
